Arrest made in city holdup

November 19, 2010

Adams County Prosecutor Chris Harvey has announced that a 19-year-old Fort Wayne man, Devonte M. Jones, has been charged with armed robbery and criminal confinement in regard to alleged crimes at a Decatur business on November 10.
Jones is in custody in Allen County, Harvey said. A second suspect in the case has apparently not been apprehended.
The crimes allegedly were committed at the S.M.O.K.E.S. Tobacco Shop on S. 13th St. when Jones and another man entered the store.
According to the information filed by Harvey in Adams Circuit Court on Thursday, an employee of the store saw one of the men throw a rock through a glass display case, while the other man pointed a handgun at her and yelled for her to give him money.
The employee allegedly ran to the rear of the store and pushed the "panic button" to alert police. However, she said, the man with the gun followed her, pointed the weapon, and again demanded money.
The employee said she told the man the money was in a box in a storage area, then she reportedly got the money and gave it to the men.
She told police that the two men took her back to the front of the store and one of them allegedly took two cartons of cigarettes and some lighters before they ran out of the building.
A customer who had entered the store while the employee and the two men were in the rear reportedly saw the two men run away and one of them lost a hat, which the customer retrieved and held until police arrived.
The information also says that the owner of S.M.O.K.E.S. had just installed a video surveillance system that allegedly shows the two men and recorded their actions.
The information further says that fingerprints reportedly taken at the scene led to the arrest of Jones.